Storm floods parts of 2 states
BILOXI, Miss. (AP) — A spring storm dumped heavy rains, baseball-sized hail and whipped up winds across the Southeast on Saturday, flooding homes and cars in parts of Mississippi and Alabama.
The system also hit the central part of the country with snow, prompting blizzard warnings and a disaster declaration in Kansas and was blamed for two traffic deaths in Oklahoma.
About 100 roads in southern Mississippi were impassable at the height of the bad weather because of the flooding, including the main route into Biloxi, Harrison County Emergency Management Director Rupert Lacy said. Some residents had to be rescued from their stalled and stranded cars, and others were helped from flooded homes, Lacy said.
More than 200 homes in the Biloxi area sustained flood damage, and two roads sustained major pavement washouts, Lacy said.
The Biloxi area had 5 to 10 inches of rain in a 24-hour period, said Bobby Weaver, operations chief for the county emergency agency.
People were evacuated from about a dozen homes in Geneva County in southeast Alabama because of flooding, said Margaret Mixon, the county’s emergency management director. And all roads in the county were closed because of the flooding, Mixon said.
Tornado watches and warnings were issued across the region, which was still reeling from twisters over the past two days. On Thursday, nearly 30 people were hurt when a tornado destroyed dozens of homes and businesses across south-central Mississippi. On Friday, tornadoes struck Louisiana, Alabama and North Carolina, damaging homes and toppling trees.
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